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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021_04_13 Sustainability Collaborative Minutes Town of Mamaroneck Sustainability Collaborative Meeting Notes, April 13, 2021 (Meeting via Zoom, 6pm – 8pm) Attendees: Mitch Green, Jeff King, Sue Odierna, George Roniger, Karen Khor, Mark Kramer, Kevin Crowe, Arlene Novich, Michelle Lewis, Elizabeth Poyet, Nick Zuba, June Wallach, Jacob Levitt, Mark Manley, Marc Karell, Lisa McDonald, Denise Dunn, Eliza Pertz, Frank Owens New volunteers/participants: Sebastian Gold (MHS student) Mitch G welcomed everyone. MHS student Sebastian Gold expressed his interest in working with the “Collabs” this summer. Notes of March 2021 meeting were accepted. Mitch asked if Sustainability Collaborative minutes and agendas are up on the website and Sue responded that they have not been posted to the website but that there is a link to Sue’s direct email to request meeting minutes and agendas. Once website renovation is completed this year, all should be uploaded. Cleaner, More Resilient Energy: Town of Mamaroneck Facilities and Fleet Energy and GHG Tracking, 2011 - 2021 Discussion about energy data usage and cost and getting the info out to the public. College intern Lizzy K. created and sent graphs showing usage to Collabs in the energy group (Mark M, Marc K, Nick, Michele). Comments included the anomaly of 2020 due to pandemic (TC closed some days, ice rink and senior center mostly closed) so usage was down. Also, though there was/is a downward trend in cost and energy usage, what is the explanation for the peaks that also occurred in some later years? Collabs requested that graphs be posted to website, but Nancy would like the Town Board to be informed of the energy data info prior to posting and for the Town to then present a more cohesive “story” on the website, not simply graphs alone. She expects this to occur at one of the May TB meetings. Update: Collabs to send a memo to Nancy/Jeff/Sue O on recommendations regarding items that should be removed from the graphs as well as thoughts on how to frame the narrative that will introduce the graphs on the website Community Solar and GridRewards – Tri-Municipal Campaign Mitch and Lisa M. updated the group regarding a joint Tri-Municipal Campaign to promote two money and energy-saving campaigns this spring – Community Solar and GridRewards. Lisa McDonald updated that there have been four webinars to give details to the community. Several Collabs and other community residents have signed up for the GridRewards program. Discussion ensued about some of the technical difficulties involved in signing up and also in receiving confirmation emails of sign-up. Mitch and Lisa to talk with SW to rectify this. Lisa reported that in the GridRewards program, the Village and Town of Mamaroneck have both met their goals to make the two municipalities eligible for $5,000 grants. Village of Larchmont hopes to make their goal as well. As a reminder, GridRewards saves residents money when they reduce electricity demand during “peak power” periods in the summer, while helping the environment by enabling ConEd to avoid turning on its “dirty peaker” fossil fuel power plants on hot and humid days. Community Solar enables residents who sign up to receive a 10% reduction on the portion of their electric usage that is credited to the regional solar installation the resident selects. The program is being marketed specifically to low-moderate income residents and/or those who cannot install solar panels on their rooftops or are 1 apartment-dwellers and/or renters. Residents benefit by saving money, depending on the number of Town residents who sign up, the municipalities involved receive NYSERDA reward dollars. Update 1: As of Friday, May 7, for the Town of Mamaroneck, more than 25 residents had signed up for Community Solar and more than 35 residents had signed up for GridRewards. The Community Solar program is still active – please encourage your neighbors and friends to sign up! Update 2: There was a very successful Community Solar announcement at the Hommocks Park Apartments on April 28 attended by Collab energy experts Mark Manley and Frank Owens, along with Nancy, Steve Otis, several community organization and housing leaders, the solar developer and representatives from Sustainable Westchester including its director Nina Orville. The program received excellent media coverage and SW is now marketing community solar to apartment dwellers and low to moderate income residents. Strengthen Community Health: Tree Team Arlene and Mitch presented the Tree Team‘s “white paper” to the TB on April 7. TB member Abby Katz brought up the tree code and seemed interested in updating it. TB member Jeff King mentioned it’s important to plant trees with deep roots, and having appropriate trees in appropriate locations. He added that the entire Board agrees that we need more trees and that the code needs revision, especially the part that says if you have less than ½ acre, you don’t need a permit to cut down a tree. In response to the positive meeting with the Town Board, the Tree Team is working on that, will have Luke Brussel review. Arlene said they’re reviewing neighboring municipality codes, Jake added they made note of what could be improved upon and what potential challenges might be presented. Mitch referenced the 5G group and that they put together a “best in class” modification of the Town telecommunications code which went to the TB, and was referred to the Town Counsel; perhaps the Tree Team could do something similar. Mark K said our current tree code has a negative tone compared to Scarsdale’s. He thought it would be a good idea to de-emphasize what NOT to do and stress how trees benefit us, to revise our code such that it is more positive in nature. Eliza agreed and said that East Hampton’s tree code is also very positive in tone and that this is an opportunity to educate and inspire residents through the code, not simply point out violations. Arlene also reported on the stats that the Town sends each year to Arbor Day Foundation (Tree City applications) Sue gathered data from the conservation planner, Liz Aitchison from the years 2007 to 2019. In recent years, we lost more trees than we planted. Arlene and the Tree Team have worked with CUNY Professor Andrew Reinmann to obtain preliminary information on the percentage of the Town covered by our Tree Canopy, based on satellite data from 2016, the most recent year available. This information has been sent to the Town and distributed to the Collab. Action Item 1: Mitch asked Tree Team to tabulate last couple of years (2017 – 2020) and amend white paper with this added data. Action Item 2: In order to meet the Town Board’s request to receive the Collab’s recommendations on revisions to the Tree Code, the Tree Team will present a status update on their work at the May Collab meeting, with the goal of presenting our thoughts to the Board in the second half of June. Action Item 3: Preliminary information on the 2016 Tree Canopy for the Town of Mamaroneck from Professor Reinmann is included with these notes. 2 OCRA (Original Science Research Action) MHS Students “Green Mamaroneck” App Michele L. reported that she is waiting for requested changes to the app. The target for the app going live is middle of May following the Beta testing period. Mitch reported that the Mamaroneck Schools Foundation has provided funds for the first two years of the app and the app gives a “shout out” to MSF for this. Mitch suggested the green app is a great way for outreach and education to some who may not have connected with environmental initiatives thus far. Update: The OCRA students have beta-tested the Green Mamaroneck App with more than 35 residents who varied in age between 17 and 65. Many comments were received, and the students have been modifying the App in response. Michele and Mitch reviewed the App on Friday May 7, making some further suggestions and agreeing to ask Collab members to check the text. The OCRA students will present the app with its changes at the May Collabs meeting. The “Go Live!” Launch date is projected for May 15, and may include a joint press release by the Town and the Mamaroneck Schools Minimize Waste: Compost Talk/Food Scrap Recycling/Events Elizabeth P and Judy C gave a presentation on “Backyard Composting” hosted by the Larchmont Library and sponsored by the Collabs and LEC. They will give a similar presentation hosted by the Mam’k Library in mid-May. The recording of this talk is on the Mam’k green app and on YouTube site of the Larchmont Library. (Here is the link to their video -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RFOJqsEx6Y) Mitch asked for an update from Karen and also Jeff on the County residential food scrap program. Based on the Larch/Mamk Sanitation Commission potential expansion, there hasn’t been movement on this though Jeff reported that the TB did approve it in concept. th Karen mentioned several events coming up – first the LEC Earth Day event on 4/17, Town’s 4 Annual Compost Giveback event on 4/24, opening day of Larchmont Farmers Market, also on 4/24. Mark K mentioned tree sapling giveaway where residents can sign up to pick up their free tree sapling while at LEC event on 4/17 and then pick up tree on May 1 at the Market. Karen reported that the Collaborative will have a table every Saturday at the Farmers Market 4/24 through 7/3. Tent/tables will be stored at Town kiosk across street from market and volunteers will pick up and set up Town booth at the Market. Plan is to promote sustainability initiatives: cleaner, reliable energy, healthier communities and minimizing waste. June mentioned her meeting with Laura W. re: designing a brochure or more simply, a one-pager regarding Collab sustainability programs and this could be helpful at the market as a sort of “cheat sheet.” June also reported that there have been several calls for Collabs to hold webinar events -- at the library, school, Center for Continuing Ed., etc. so the word is getting out there about Collabs’ work. Regarding the proposed Healthy Yards Garden Tour, June announced the HY group will hold off on conducting their own HY garden tour and instead promote the Pollinator Pathways garden tour on June 13, including some local gardens being slated for this Pollinator Pathways tour. The HY group’s focus will instead be on outreach and education through the libraries, activities at the Village of Larchmont’s “Green Zone”, and potentially events in the schools this fall. June W also mentioned reaching out to Mt Sinai Medical School’s Environmental Health program to bring leading researchers to our community related to Healthy Yards. The first event may be a webinar with the Larchmont Library on public health and pesticides (this has been confirmed, flyer attached). 3 Community Outreach & Education: Center for Continuing Education Sustainability Seminars Karen and June mentioned working with Center for Continuing Education, starting in the fall, on a series of 30 minute programs on a variety of Collab efforts. The Collab needs to think about content and make it engaging (June added it would be best with two presenters like with Elizabeth and Judy’s program with Larch Library). Town Website Traffic Data related to Sustainability Issues Mark K. asked about metrics involved with residents going on the Town website and Mitch asked if Sue could investigate and see about getting information out to the Collabs. Update: Sue has a query in to IT department to see if they could provide metric info, she has requested it be on a quarterly basis. If metric info is desired on the Town’s FB pages, Sue can easily gather that info. State Senator Shelley Mayer’s Environmental Forum, April 24 Mitch introduced Senator Mayer’s Environmental Forum on April 24. The Forum will be hosted by Senator Mayer and include speakers discussing efforts at the State and regional levels as well as “local efforts” speakers from Sustainable Westchester (Nina Orville), Bedford 2030 (Karen Sabath) and the Sustainability Collaborative (Mitch G). The Collaborative’s presentation will include the Hommocks Ice Rink Community Solar project, the Love Your Food campaign, and the Green Mamaroneck phone App. Update: The Collaborative’s presentation is included with these notes The meeting was adjourned at 8:10 pm. The next meeting will be held on: Tuesday, May 11, 2021 via Zoom @ 6pm 4